Another Ban Failed: AL Proposed state smoking ban goes up in smoke

Smoking ban bill dies without being voted on
May 20, 2008

A bill that would ban smoking in most public places and work places in Alabama died in the Legislature without coming up for a vote in the House on the final day of the 2008 regular session Monday.

The bill by Sen. Vivian Figures of Mobile would have banned smoking in restaurants and other public places. It would have made an exception for bars where food sales make up less than 20 percent of their business.

Figures, who suffers from bronchitis and asthma, has been fighting for the statewide smoking ban for more than 10 years.

Supporters of the smoking ban, many wearing signs that said “smoke free air” filled the House chambers for much of the day Monday, waiting to cheer for a bill that never came up for debate.

In the House, the bill has been pushed by Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, who has survived bouts with breast and thyroid cancer.

She said she and Figures will try again next year with bills to ban smoking.

“The people whose lives have most been influenced by second hand smoke were here today pushing for this bill,” McClurkin said. “I hope we can come back with this bill in a special session.”

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Alabama Smoking Ban

By Tiffany Simmons
Associated Press, News 3 on Your Side
April 30 2008

The Senate has passed a bill banning smoking in most public places in the state. Those places would include workplaces, restaurants, and athletic events.

The bill now has to go to the House to be approved.

Some local restaurant owners and workers say that they feel it should pass.

Christina Deaton who works at a restaurant that doesn’t allow inside smoking says “being a cigarette smoker, I’ll sit in the non-smoking section just so I can enjoy my food without the smoke.”

Renea Skinner who owns River Falls coffee shop says “I think you should have an option if you’re big enough that you can have a smoking section and it not bother people then you should stay inside.”

One owner says she hopes the bill passes because although she does allow smoking in her restaurant, she feels it is affecting her workers health.

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Smoking ban debate? Alabama’s already been here before

May 6, 2008

Representatives of Alabama,
???? The state of Alabama should dodge the smoking ban disaster.? We’ve already gone down this path before.? There was an anti-tobacco movement that occurred in the early twentieth-century U.S.? In fact, between 1890 and 1930 fifteen states enacted laws to ban the sale, manufacture, possession, and/or use of cigarettes–and no fewer than twenty-two other states considered such legislation, including ALABAMA!
Alabama’s legislature considered tobacco prohibition laws in 1892, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1903, and 1907.
Cigarette bans of that era died on the battlefields of World War I, in the speakeasies of the Prohibition era, and in the soup lines of the Great Depression.
Historically, bans have failed in the past on a global basis as well.? One Catholic pope declared a worldwide tobacco ban that was ignored, while Ottoman Sultan Murad IV actually executed smokers.? Nowadays Turkey is one of the smokiest nations in the world.? In Russia, the Orthodox Church declared smoking to be against the Bible, to no avail.? In China in 1638 the use and supply of tobacco was made a crime punishable by decapitation for those convicted.? A modern-day smoking ban for Alabama would wind up getting tossed into the trash bin of history as these earlier bans eventually were.
???? Frankly, SB229 makes zero sense anyway.? The rule to keep smokers 10 feet from restaurant doors is absolutely nuts and totally unenforceable.? It sounds like some California-style kookiness.? I rarely see people smoking that close to doors.? Also, the part about allowing smoking in bars that get less than 20 percent of their income from food sales does not make sense either.? Why the arbitrary number?? The poorly enforced and unfunded smoking bans of Georgia, Tennesse, and Arkansas allow any adult-only bar or restaurant to allow smoking.? Why could not that be the same for Alabama?
???? Smoking bans are NOT needed anyway.? I point to the fact that OSHA, the very agency that regulates workplace safety studied ETS for SEVEN years and chose not to regulate it since the agency found all the components in secondhand smoke are present at safe levels in the vast majority of public places.?
http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p;_id=24602

What studies are the Alabama legislators willing to conduct to contradict OSHA’s conclusions on ETS?

???? Smoking bans cause economic damage too.? Michael Pakko, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discovered this in a recent study he published.? Follow the link:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/regecon/op/CRE8OP-2008-002.pdf

Especially in uneasy economic times such as our current recession, smoking bans should be avoided like the plague.

Thanks,
Jeremy Richards, Ph.D.

For historic insight into this issue see Cassandra Tate’s book Cigarette Wars.? Also, follow this link:
http://sadireland.com/smoking1.htm

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American Cancer Society says poll shows overwhelming support for a law to ban smoking in all Alabama workplaces
Bill planned for Legislature
January 14, 2008
DAVE PARKSNews staff writer
The American Cancer Society is scheduled to release a poll today showing overwhelming support for a state law to ban smoking in all workplaces.
The poll of 503 registered voters is part of the American Cancer Society’s push to get Alabama to join 26 other states in passing tougher smoke-free laws. The poll shows:

Proposed state smoking ban goes up in smoke

March 30, 2006

A plan to ban smoking in restaurants went up in smoke this morning in an Alabama House committee.

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures’ proposed constitutional amendments to keep smoking out of restaurants and bars didn’t make it out of the House State Government Committee, putting its passage in the few days left this legislative session in peril.

“I think we as Americans have a right to breath clean air,” said Figures, defending the bill before the committee.

A handful of municipalities in the state, including Montgomery have put limits on smoking. In the Capital City, there’s no puffing allowed in restaurants that serve children.

“You’ve cut out the choice for the people that do want to smoke,” said Rep. Ralph Howard, D-Greensboro.

The committee subsequently took bars out of Figures’ constitutional amendment. If the Legislature passes the smoking ban this session, it would then need approval by statewide vote.??????

March 20, 2006

Alabama voters would get to decide if they want to ban smoking in all public restaurants and bars in the state under a proposed constitutional amendment approved by the state Senate. Smoking would only be allowed on outside decks and patios. The measure now goes to the House.

Florida and California have already banned smoking in public places.? Not all smokers like the idea.? “I think I should have the right to smoke in designated areas and I think it should be up to the store owners, up to the businessman,” Terry Branch, who”s a smoker, told CBS 8 News Wednesday.

But non-smokers say they would welcome the chance to vote on a smoking ban. “I just never have been fond of smoke. I”m gagging all the time,” non-smoker Courtney Talley said.

“If we give the people the opportunity to vote whether to ban gay marriages, then certainly we should give them the opportunity to vote on whether they want to breathe clean air,” state Sen. Vivian Figures (D-Mobile), who sponsored the bill, said.

This legislation does exempt bars and restaurants that require a paid membership and outdoor eating environments. Sen. Figures says the Restuarant Association of Alabama is supporting this bill because it will put all restaurants on the same playing field.

It would be the Department of Public Health along with the State Fire Marshal”s office to enforce any no-smoking requirements.?????

Alabama Debates Smoking Ban
March 15, 2006
Brock Parker
The Alabama Senate passed the amendment Tuesday by a 26 to seven vote. The House has yet to debate it. Opelika”s smoking ban goes into effect around Memorial Day, and Auburn”s ban won”t become law until August 2007.?????????

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Mar. 14, 2006
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama voters would get to decide if they want to ban smoking in all public restaurants and bars in the state under a proposed constitutional amendment approved Tuesday by the Senate.

The Alabama Senate voted 26-7 to approve the proposed amendment that would ban all smoking in bars and restaurants, except on outside decks and patios. The measure now goes to the House.

The proposed amendment would permit smoking in private clubs.

“This bill may give some people a few more breaths by preventing them from smoking in bars and restaurants,” said the bill”s sponsor, Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, a longtime advocate of legislation to limit smoking in public buildings. “It”s going to protect children and the elderly, who won”t be exposed to second hand smoke against their wishes.”

She said she feels it”s only right to allow people to vote on whether they want a smoke-free environment when they go out to eat.

“If we can give the people the opportunity to vote on whether to ban gay marriages, certainly we should give them the opportunity to vote on whether there should be clean air when they eat in a restaurant,” said Figures, referring to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages that will be on the June 6 primary ballot.
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Sorry, you can”t smoke out here
Some cities pondering outdoor smoking bans

Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
March 3, 2006
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People are huffing and puffing over anti-smoking laws as a movement to ban outdoor smoking wafts across the country.

More than 700 cities across the country have enacted ordinances that limit outdoor smoking, according to the American Nonsmokers” Rights Foundation.

Yucaipa, where the City Council recently outlawed smoking in all 10 city parks, is the latest addition to the growing list.

Cities such as Redlands, Grand Terrace and Rancho Cucamonga have had similar ordinances in place for years and have yet to issue a citation.

The issue has become a pet project for Yucaipa Councilwoman Denise Hoyt, who urged fellow city leaders to snuff out smoking in public parks, after several residents complained to her about secondhand smoke disturbing them at city-sanctioned events.

“I believe it”s protecting our citizens and sending a message that we value healthy living and recreation,” she said.

Not all of her fellow council members agree.

Councilmen Tom Masner and Bob Lampi oppose the ban, claiming it takes away certain liberties. The two nonsmokers said they would prefer outlawing tobacco use only in designated areas of the parks.

Mayor Dick Riddell holds a counter view: “I”m opposed to excessive government interference into private lives, but there comes a time when we have to protect the people from themselves for the common good.”

Yucaipa”s decision comes mere weeks after the state Air Resources Board declared secondhand smoke a toxic contaminant that can lead to lung cancer, asthma, heart disease, respiratory infections and death.

It also follows on the heels of the strictest anti-smoking law yet.

In Calabasas, a small unincorporated town of 25,000 in northern Los Angeles County, smokers cannot puff in any public area where their plumes might disturb others, including sidewalks, parks, patios and common areas of apartment complexes.

“It”s not a ban, its a secondhand-smoke-control ordinance and a public-health law,” said Calabasas Mayor Barry Groveman. “The difference is we don”t tell people they can”t smoke, we just require that if they are going to smoke they do so in a designated area.”

The Calabasas ordinance, which went into effect March 17, coincided with the well-received release of the satirical comedy “Thank You for Smoking,” which reveals the tale of tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor.

Labeled as a merchant of death, Naylor is hated by the nation for his job – spinning away the dangers of cigarettes and putting a positive spin on a product even he admits is a pathway to death. But he doesn”t encourage people to light up. He simply promotes free choice, urging Americans – young and old – to combat the scripted message from health and lawmaking do-gooders that smoking is poison.

For decades, health advocates have waged a war against the tobacco industry in response to thousands of secondhand smoke-related deaths and a continual stream of cigarette advertisements and movies depicting smoking as the “cool” thing to do.

Tobacco companies spend about $1.5 billion a year advertising products in the state, according to the 2003 Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report. “The cigarette companies try to make it sound like people have a constitutional right to smoke. But I”m not aware of that right in the Constitution,” said Charlie Smith, American Cancer Society chairman of the Los Angeles region.

“The fact is, people know secondhand smoke causes cancer. While someone may think they have a right to smoke, they don”t have a right to cause cancer death to someone else,” Smith said.

The National Cancer Institute reports there are at least 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, while cautioning the number is probably closer to 100,000. At least 60 are carcinogens, substances that cause cancer.

At the rate adult smokers are quitting in the state, the issue one day may be moot.

The number of smokers has dropped significantly over the years, from 23 percent in 1988 to 16 percent in 2004.

Groveman said he never expected Calabasas” ordinance to become a model for the rest of the world, but he encouraged city leaders far and wide to “get rolling.”

“The question for us begins with one important premise: Do we accept the mountain of evidence that irrefutably suggests that secondhand smoke causes serious injury and death?” Groveman asked. “If we accept that, then this is a very legitimate public-health law. Nobody has a right to do something that harms somebody else.”

The state has always been on the forefront of social trends. It banned smoking in the workplace in 1995, bars were next in 1998.

In 2004, those waiting to exhale had to move 20 feet from doorways and windows of all public buildings.

In 2005, San Francisco became the first city to ban smoking in public parks.

Smoking bans may be all the rage in America right now, but their roots extend all the way back to 1590, when Pope Urban VII is believed to have issued the world”s first known smoking ban.

He threatened to excommunicate anyone who brought any form of tobacco near a church.

Nazi Germany also launched an anti-tobacco campaign between 1933 and 1944, although most people say there is little comparison between then and now. “Germany had the world”s strongest anti-smoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, supported by Nazi medical and military leaders worried that tobacco might prove a hazard to the race,” wrote Robert Proctor, a history professor at Pennsylvania State University, in his article “The anti-tobacco campaign of the Nazis: a little known aspect of public health in Germany, 1933-45.”

Ironically, a dramatic rise in smokers was seen during the first six years of Nazi rule. Between 1932 and 1939, Germany”s per capita tobacco use rose from 570 to 900 cigarettes a year.?
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